Archive > 12 November 2009

The 2009 Golden Glove Winners have been announced, and Nippon Ham dominated the Pacific League with seven players receiving the award. Tetsuya Matsumoto of the Giants became the first former ikusei player to win a Golden Glove.

According to a baseball source, Darrell Rasner has agreed to a deal to return to the Rakuten Golden Eagles. Rakuten declined their team option for 2010, but the two sides came to terms on a new one-year contract with an option for 2011. The deal’s financial terms are unknown.

Rasner struggled in his first year in Japan, but showed some signs of coming around late in the season. We’ll see how he does under new manager Marty Brown.

There’s always a high turnover among foreign players in Japan. This year will be no different, with 30+ players already gone from their 2009 employers. By the end of next season, we’ll have seen 35-45 new players in Japan.

Like most years, the biggest needs around the league are corner outfielders, pitchers, and first basemen. There will be a couple third base and DH spots open as well.

This is mostly my own speculation. Some of the names came out of the Japanese media, but many have not, so take this list with a grain of salt.

Possible Returnees

CJ Nitkowski - seemed like he had a deal to go back to Japan before Doosan snapped him up off waivers from SK

Rick Guttormson - Orix is looking at bringing Gutto back from Korea; has an NPB no-hitter to his name

Brad Thomas - Thomas has spent the last year or two in Korea, is on Hanshin’s list

It looks like the reports of Boston’s interest in Hideki Matsui drew quite a bit of attention the other day, possibly getting blown just a wee bit out of proportion. All the reports in the Japanese media, which idolizes Matsui, are saying that Godzilla is shaping up to a plan b to Jason Bay.

When asked by the Japanese press, Theo Epstein played down the idea of signing Matsui. Quoted in Sponichi: “Our DH next season is [David] Ortiz. His last four months of this season were good, and I think next year will be a good season for him”; and Daily Sports, commenting more specifically on Matsui: “we aren’t thinking about it that deeply. Right now we have our hands full with our own free agents.” Incidentally, Epstein has been quoted as saying he wants to keep Takashi Saito around.